Friday, March 28, 2014

VM Straka is an enigma. Not many know about who the author really is but they enjoy his books. This includes ex-scholar Eric who was kicked out of the university while studying Straka in his post-graduate. Jen, an undergrad student, finds Eric's Straka book 'Ship of Theseus', and starts jotting down notes in the margins. So starts a conversation between Jen and Eric who only meet in the pages of the book. In a truly unique book, not only do you get the story from 'Ship of Theseus' but the conversation between Eric and Jen as they try to figure out who Straka is.

The first challenge of this book is trying to figure out how to read it. Eric and Jen take 4 turns through the book using different colours each time. There are also inserts for the book, with newspaper clippings, postcards, etc. The book itself is quite beautifully crafted. This may be a bit odd but it also smelled exactly like an old book that had been kept in great condition. I decided to read the story and the first pass for Eric and Jen and then go back to read their second pass, followed by the third and then the forth. It seemed to work well and for the most part everything was in chronological order for reading.

The story of 'Ship of Theseus' is interesting but the real draw of the book comes from Eric and Jen. At first there are way too many characters and people to remember. I didn't feel like I had a good grasp on who was who until my second pass through the book. I really enjoyed the additional element that the notes in the margins added. It really made this book fun to read.

Don't pick this book up if you are a lazy reader. You need to continue reading the book after it's done by researching it online. Not all the clues are solved and not all answers are given (typical J.J. Abrams) but there are some sites out there that do a good job of filling in the blanks.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Lt. Tony Scanlon gets the call that a Sergent and business owner have been shot and killed in a robbery. After interviewing the witnesses, Scanlon learns that the shooter yelled 'hey you' before killing the two. Was it really a robbery or was one of them the intended target? Scanlon works with his troupe of disgraced cops, he himself having lost his leg, to solve the case when the son of the business owner is killed. What connects them all together?

I'm not usually a big fan of mysteries where a cop is the victim. I find that the motives are usually similar and books begin to feel the same because the same questions are being asked. However, you could tell the Caunitz had experience on the force which brought a bit of a different element to the book. I don't think I had read a book where the cop's locker gets cleaned out as a first step to an investigation, which was kind of interesting.

The mystery of this book was rather weak, but the characters were what kept me reading. Scanlon and his band of misfits were an interesting crew. I enjoyed Scanlon's personal and professional life, it's just a shame that the mystery didn't match.

Friday, March 07, 2014

I picked this up not because I have any interest in giving a TED talk, but because I give a few presentations a week and wanted to see if I could pick up some tips on how to present better. There are many tips given in this book, most of which are common sense or known best practices for public speaking. There wasn't much that was specific to TED talks, although Donovan did break down some speeches that were very popular in terms of timing, laughs, pauses, etc. However this doesn't really help you craft your speech. I can't write to say "you" 4 times every 60 seconds, I would imagine it's difficult to precisely measure that out. There are some great reminders in here though. Such as don't be afraid of silence, it doesn't need to be filled with "ums" and "uhs". It's always great to have this reminder as I start consciously thinking about it and find myself saying it less often when I do think about it.

I ended up listening to this on audio, which I don't think is the best way to read this book. The lists became long, tedious, and meaningless. Plus I feel that this would be better as a written book that you could reference when you have a speech or presentation coming up soon.

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Jack leaves his home town and is making him way to the big city to find his fortune. The city he comes across is Toy City, where toys are alive and nursery rhyme characters are the upper class. What Jack doesn't realize is that Toy City's first serial killer is on the loose, killing nursery rhyme characters, starting with Humpty Dumpty. Jack is befriended by Eddie, a teddy bear detective, and the two set off to find out who the killer is.

I've read others compare Rankin to Terry Pratchett but he reminds me more of Christopher Moore or Jasper Fforde. The play on words and the jokes about the nursery rhymes are well thought out and quite funny. I really enjoyed the characters and the filler story. What I thought was a bit weaker was the mystery itself. When clues of the killer were being given I actually felt rather let down.

First Line: "'Once upon a time,' said the big fat farmer, 'it was all fields around here.'"

About Me

Thanks for visiting! I'm Lauren (Hoser) and have been blogging books since 2006 from Ontario, Canada. I shared this blog with my mom (AceofHearts) until 2013 when she lost her battle with cancer and now continue to carry on this blog in her memory.

My favourite types of books are ones that can't really be defined any better than general fiction. You'll see me reading a lot of mystery, historical fiction, and some non-fiction as well.